Patience Smith and Sam Bloom

By VINCENT M. MALLOZZI

Patience Smith and Sam W. Bloom are to be married Sunday at the Yale Club in New York. Mary Louise Liberty, a minister of the Universal Life Church, is to officiate.

The bride, 42, will take her husband’s name. She is a senior editor at Harlequin Books in New York. She graduated from Oberlin College and received a master’s in French literature from the University of New Mexico.

She is the daughter of Bonnie G. Smith of New Brunswick, N.J., and Robert J. Smith of Guilford, Conn. Her father retired as a professor of history at the State University of New York, Brockport. Her mother is a professor of history at Rutgers.

The bridegroom, 44, is an adjunct professor of French language and literature at Barnard College and Fordham University. He graduated from Columbia, where he also received a master’s and a Ph.D. in French literature.

He is a son of William S. Bloom of Miami, and the late Charlotte S. Bloom. His father works in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as a financial consultant with AXA Advisors, a subsidiary of the AXA Group, the French insurance company.

His first marriage ended in divorce.

The couple met in September 1983 at the Taft School, a boarding school in Watertown, Conn., that both were attending.

“We were acquaintances,” Ms. Smith said. “He was very popular, and I was a wallflower. We weren’t really friends.”

Mr. Bloom graduated in 1984, and for the next quarter-century, he and Ms. Smith were out of touch.

Then one August day in 2009, they reconnected on Facebook. At the time, Ms. Smith was living and working in New York and Mr. Bloom, then divorced, was teaching French literature in Haifa, Israel.

“I recognized her right away, it’s hard to forget a name like Patience,” Mr. Bloom said. “I always had a secret little crush on her. In fact, she had gone to my senior formal with someone else, and I pulled her into one of my photos because I thought we would look good together.”

They corresponded for four months, and then that December, when the school semester ended, Mr. Bloom left Israel for New York, where “they were pretty much an item immediately,” according to Ms. Smith.

Mr. Bloom said he had plenty of good reasons to leave Israel for Ms. Smith. “She’s very earnest, very transparent and has exceptional character,” he said. “All of these things shine through.”

And in terms of waiting for Mr. Right, Ms. Smith was true to her (first) name. “He’s funny and kind and has an amazing way of looking at life,” she said. “He was certainly worth waiting for.” VINCENT M. MALLOZZI

This article reprinted from the New York Times, January 15, 2011. Photograph by WriteShot.

Watch their video here.

Jan 4, 2011, at 2:23 PM

Natasha,

The slide show and photos left me seriously awestruck!!  I was almost crying watching the slide show!!  They are absolutely stunning and DEFINITELY captured our personalities!  And the Empire State of Mind song…perfect!  I can’t wait to share these with my friends and family.

Also, feel free to post the photos/slide show wherever you want…I would be honored for you to use them!  Additionally, is it okay if I send the link to Johnny so he can see them?

And so crazy about the snow…I left this morning and as you said, not a trace! And the past few days the snow was gross because it was melting and dirty…yuck.  We definitely had the best timing with regard to the weather!

Also, you can mail the CD of pics to me. Terry will be traveling most of January so it’s probably best to mail them here.

Thanks again…it was such a fun time!  And I will let you know as soon as we finalize our February plans for Vegas.

Danielle

Location: The High Line and Meatpacking District, NYC

Stylist: Johnny Gonzalez, NYC

Wedding Planner: Las Vegas Wedding Conciege, Tracey Kumer-Moore

Photographer:  WriteShot

Tameca wore deep red pumps. Chandra wore a custom-crafted bodice that matched Tameca’s gown. The two recited poetry by Rumi to one another and exchanged vows and rings, just as an airplane swooped down from above, visible to all who witnessed their union. As they kissed, the plane pulled itself back up with a giant roar, into the sky beyond Wynn, Las Vegas‘ 45th floor. Here they are seen having some fun, in the courtyard of Blush Boutique Nightclub, before they walk down the aisle.

A long time ago, I promised to walk you through our Houston couple’s – Lauren and John’s – engagement shoot. Finally, here is part two . . .

Chris and I met up with the happy couple at John’s place, where we snacked on breakfast, sipped Mimosas and conducted our first interview. In a room off of the kitchen, we could see piles of clothes and shopping bags.

“My engagement shoot dress was, ahhhh, unavailable,” Lauren explained. Read the rest of this entry …

Brides and grooms can put a lot of pressure on themselves when it comes to an engagement photo shoot. After spending countless hours pouring over images in wedding blogs and magazines, they happily arrive at the conclusion that they either need or want their photos to look a certain way; that they need to wear a certain type of outfit or be shot in their city’s trendiest locations.

Couples plan extensively, and even though they are trying to relax about the shoot, they want everything to be absolutely perfect – just how they pictured it in their minds, and how they saw it on the blogs. That’s when things get stressful – when they don’t have to be.

Read the rest of this entry …

It turns out, the old cliché, “Everything is BIGGER and better in Texas,” may have some truth to it. Chris and I just returned from a two-day, non-stop, super-sized shoot with our clients, Lauren and John. From fajitas at Kemah‘s Cadillac Bar to BBQ beef sandwiches and a concert featuring Lady Antebellum at the  largest rodeo in the United States, we experienced the larger-than-life taste and flavor of Lauren and John’s hometown, Houston. Oh, and we shot a few photos, too.

Check out our top shots in their slide show and be sure to check back as our next few blog entries are going to transport  you deep into the heart of their Texas engagement shoot, as we take you through the anatomy of an engagement session.

While Chris was shooting the Pacquiao v. Cotto fight at Mandalay Bay, I had the pleasure of spending the evening getting to know and shooting Stephanie and Carlos on Vegas’ Fremont Street. Stephanie and Carlos are one of those amazing couples who met on line and fell in love. “Thank goodness for match.com,” said Stephanie. “Otherwise we would never have met, because we both work in such different worlds.” Read the rest of this entry …